Morrow Article 

So with all the trade deadline discussions going on today, I wasn't sure if anyone had come across this article on the M's website where Riggleman talks about converting Morrow to a starter.

He says that if they want to see Morrow as a starter.... do it now... here's the quote

"If we're going to do something down the road with Morrow as a starter, we have to get the transitions started," manager Jim Riggleman said Wednesday afternoon. "There is enough time to do it between here and Tacoma, but we probably would have to do start it in the next couple of weeks."

He says that to wait until the off-season and then judge in ST just wouldn't work you can't get a real feel for what he could do as you are trying to stretch him out in the spring.

In his rumblings and grumblings article he address a couple of Mariner topics.  The second one is the one I found interesting... the Twins are still interested in Beltre, which we're all aware of.  The part of it that I (probably because I haven't been paying much attention to baseball lately) is that the Dodgers were interested as well, but have no dropped that interest because Beltre has a limited no trade clause that specifically includes the Dodgers.

Stark also says that Washburn and Rhodes are about the only two to likely be moved, but there's alot of interest in Ibanez but the M's have attached a pretty steep price, so if Ibanez doesn't get traded its not from a lack of interest.

Typical Mariners, not knowing when to move a player that's reaching the end of his career.

It wasn't that long ago that there were alot of discussions about when to callup up Clement and how it would affect his service time in the majors.

Now it seems like that can of worms is being attacked by agents, as Francisco Liriano's agent is calling for the the players union to investigate the Twins for not calling up Liriano after he's posted a 7-0 record with a 2.73 ERA in his last 9 games in AAA. 

His agent Greg Genske is claiming that by not calling him up its had an adverse effect on his service time.   He currently stands at 2 years and 45 days according to the article, and of course 3 years is when arbitration eligibility kicks in.

The Twins say its only because the young guys have pitched well, and Livan Hernandez is the only "veteran" and the only one with post season experience so they are reluctant to move him out of the rotation even though he's been pretty bad.

they've got a whole article up on the Managers and their status.  The take they have on McLaren is pretty interesting.... basically they say that Bavasi isn't going to fire Mac to save his own butt, and then they go on to point out that the M's haven't fired a manager or a GM in mid-season since the 1988 season.  Its a small little snippet but it basically shows what the M's are all about, ride it out make changes later, blah blah blah.

Here's the whole snippet.

McLaren: McLaren's many friends in the game weren't shocked by his McMeltdown this month -- just that it took so long in coming. But this is a team in major trouble, and (in a related development) a team now threatening to bring down everyone responsible for putting it together. So the question almost certainly isn't whether somebody is going to get fired. The more realistic questions are who and when.

 

According to baseball men familiar with how the Mariners operate, GM Bill Bavasi could be in more imminent danger than his manager. Maybe that's only because Bavasi has told everyone around him he is not going to fire McLaren to protect his own butt. But those are the vibes within the sport, anyway.

 

We should also remember that this team hasn't fired a manager or GM in midseason in 20 years (since Dick Balderson and Dick Williams in 1988). But given the expectations and that $118-million payroll, it's impossible to believe that this group could possibly survive what's looking like a 100-loss season. So "sooner or later," said one prominent baseball man, "this is going to get dicey."

So sources are saying that the cause of the fight between Youkilis and Manny was the result of Youkilis having a bad at-bat.   Seems that whenever he has a bad at-bat he comes back to the dugout and throws a little temper tantrum tossing his helmet and bats and things like that.   Well Manny being Manny thought it was selfish of Youk to be so worried about one at-bat in a game they were winning, and decided to intervene and that's when things blew up.  Evidently the rest of the team feels pretty much the same way that when Youk gets that upset he's being "selfish" and not being a "team player."

So if I get this straight have a bad at bat but brush it off, don't take some much pride in your work that you get pissy and throw a tantrum, cause then you're just being selfish?   That's a head-scratcher to me..... isn't trying to do your best in every at-bat the ultimate sign of a team player?   I'm sooo confused!

Youk vs. Manny

Dice-K going to the DL with a "minor" rotator cuff strain..... for some reason any time the word rotator cuff comes up in regards to a pitcher's injury I seem to think its just a matter of time before its a "Major" injury.

You know if the M's had won the bidding on Dice-K it would be a full blown tear and he'd be out until late 2009 as they'd fix it then have to go back in and fix something else that they missed.  heh

So Orlando Cabrera  takes it upon himself to call up to the scorer's booth when he gets charged for with an error during a game.  He calls up to complain and plead his side of the story and evidently its worked twice this year to have the calls reversed and the errors removed.  He also does this because he doesn't believe that Ozzie Guillen has his back.   Ummm.. maybe its just me, but players should not be allowed to call the scorers booth to argue judgement calls, especially during a game, and in this case I back Ozzie.. worrying about whether something is a hit or an error during a game is not something he should be concerned with.  I wonder how his starting pitchers feel about this, since it could impact their ERA (which although its a bad stat in our views) is still widely looked at in baseball circles.

This whole story just strikes me as hilarious.....

so with the M's struggling offensively, and more and more talk coming around about the guys that aren't producing being on a short leash.... what happens?

Well lets see... tonight Jeremy Reed is 3-3 with a double, walk, run scored, and 2-rbi

Jeff Clement is 2-3 with a walk, and a run scored

and last but not least... Wlad is 2-4 with 2 homeruns, 2 runs scored and 3-rbi.

for those that didn't get to see the whole Pie in the face that Lowe delivered to JJ, Baker has it up on his website right now, including the early interview with Mentink where JJ was all paranoid throughout the whole interview section.   Gotta give Lowe props for hiding as well as he did..... hilarious.

Also from Baker today he discusses Vidro.... the best line he had in the whole discussion about Vidro as the DH and in regards to last night specifically was this one:  In fact, Vidro was everything this team needs. In a pinch-hitter.

Krivsky fired... Jocketty in place.  So Cincy is the first to start rolling the dice on making changes.

I'm not really sure that Krivsky did anything all that horrible to be fired, though his moving of Josh Hamilton probably is up there.  But I guess this was considered a move that was inevitable since Jocketty was hired as a special assistant.  With the Reds off to a slow start it gave the owner "justification".

funny take on the first week of the season by ESPN's page 2 staff.... under the Mariners you get these gems:

Seattle Mariners
• We just got swept by the Orioles. Wait … the first-place Orioles. That sounds better.

• Erik Bedard missed his last start with a bad hip; oh yeah, he's never pitched 200 innings in a season. So why did everyone think he made us the favorites?

• Richie Sexson looks like he's right on track for another worthless season.

• Jose Lopez has the range of an 83-year-old man … and that's an insult to 83-year-old men.

• Jose Vidro is hitting .130. Good thing we didn't sign Bonds in the offseason.

• If Putz is out for the season, Bavasi will re-sign Jose Mesa to replace him (and somehow lose a draft pick in doing so)!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=panicpraise/080407

Morrow to AA West Tennessee

Reed to AAA Tacoma

is a HR derby for the M's.... 3rd inning... M's have gone deep 3 times already (Lopez, Beltre, and Ibanez)... Lilly pitching for the Cubs....

Game is on WGN and MLB.tv for those of you like me that don't have a Friday Night social life.

has a tear in his shoulder according to an LA times article...

he's not sure yet if he'll be out for the year, or if its the end of the road for him

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-angrep27mar27,1,340320.story?track=rss

he says he's going to explore his options though because he believes he can still pitch at the major league level.... still?  Could he ever really pitch major league calibur? heh

right now the options for the role of 4th outfielder falls between Jimerson, Morse, Reed, and Wlad.

We know Wlad would be better served playing in Tacoma everyday, Reed is really not much of an option because the entire outfield would be left handed, so its down to Jimerson and Morse.  

There's been plenty of criticism at Morse for his lack of defensive ability in the outfield this week (understandable considering he hasn't been a regular outfielder at all).

Jimerson gives you some speed and defense but an all or nothing approach at the plate.

On Baker's blog this past week there was talk about the M's looking outside for a 4th outfielder, last year they made a last second deal for Jason Ellison.

Toronto just cut loose Reed Johnson in favor of Shannon Stewart...

If the M's decide they need better defense then Morse could provide would Johnson be a decent waiver wire solution?  I don't know much about him other then he was always a pain when we played Toronto.

one of the things that has been discussed quite a bit during ST is the option of having Betancourt batting second vs him batting 9th.

The prevailing opinion is that having him and Ichiro next to each other maximizes the use of both of their respective speed.

Now we know that Yuni isn't slow, but he doesn't steal bases particularly well (in regards to efficiency), he also is quite the hacker at the plate.  

So why would you want to put Yuni in the #2 spot in the lineup when typically you want someone that takes quite a few pitches and can work the pitcher giving Ichiro the necessary time to attempt a steal.  You also want someone that can put the ball between second and first as that is where the big defensive hole opens up, and gives the base runner the best chance to go from first to third on a base hit to right (longest throw).

One reason that was sort of brought up by Baker is that moving Yuni into the two spot and moving Vidro down in the lineup could limit the number of at-bats that Vidro see's therefore making his vesting option harder to attain.

What I'm curious about is thru the course of the season what is the typical difference in amount of plate appearances between a #2 hitter and a #8 hitter in the lineup?  Does anyone know the number of plate appearances Vidro needs to make his option vest?

MLB hands down fines and suspensions for the spring training fracas between the Yanks and the Rays.....

(NYY)Shelley Duncan 3 games and fined
(NYY)Melky Cabrera 3 games and fined
(TBR)Jonny Gomes 2 games and fined
(NYY)Joe Giardi Fined
(NYY)Bobby Meacham Fined
(NYY)Kevin Long Fined

Duncan's slide was termed "violent and reckless actions, which incited the bench-clearing incident"

M's made some cuts today reassigning some to AAA and to minor league camp.  Those that were cut are:

Assigned to AAA:
Bryan Lahair
Yung Chi Chen
Joe Woerman

Assigned to minor league camp:
Phillippe Aumont
Brodie Downs
Stephen Kahn
Robert Rohrbaugh
Jair Fernandez
Adam Moore
Brant Ust
Bronson Sardinah
Matt Kiger

Seems that the people vying for GS52's spot as the lefty reliever aren't exactly the people I thought they'd be.  

The guy filling in for Geoff says that the 3 main guys that are in the running for that spot in the pen are O'Flaherty, Jiminez, and to an extent Jake Woods.  RRS and Feierabend are considered to be more of the long reliever type.

McLaren also seems to be highly enamored with Jiminez and just judging by the tone of the article it almost seems that he's the front runner for the slot (though its early in ST).

I would have thought that if RRS didn't get a shot at the rotation with ability to strike out batters that he might be the lead candidate for the late inning spot, but sounds like he's barely in the running for it.

That surprises me.

he sure is making a strong case for going north with the club early in the season... at least from an offensive standpoint.

just drove in the games first run with a double off the top of the right centerfield wall.

also, defensively today he's playing centerfield.. that means already in ST he's played all 3 outfield positions I believe...

I'm sure this will tickle some of you to death... one of our most famous players has now had arrest warrants filed against him....

The warrants are for DUI, DUI with blood alcohol content more then .08, hit and run, aggravated assault, and assault and battery.

all this evidently stems from an incident in Irvine California back on December 30th.

well so much for that being the case.

Ryan Howard won his arbitration case against the phillies who were offering him 7mil, but he won for 10 mil.

That's in his third professional season...  I think teams are going to work alot harder at securing their "club controled" players up to contracts rather then go to arbitration with them.

That's not to say Howard isn't worth 10 mil a year, but you would think you wouldn't have to go that high of a salary for a player in only his 3rd year of service time.

According to Baker, the M's have signed Bubba Crosby to a minor league deal... the one thing that seems interesting though is that they signed him, but there is no spring camp invite for him.

Is there a limit on the number of non-roster invitee's a team can have to spring traing?

I've never heard of any limits, but I guess there could be some type... just don't see why they wouldn't at least invite him to camp since they signed him.

Picture of a slimmed down Felix starts it off...

but the big topic was, he talked with McLaren about the posibility of Balentein making the club out of spring since he had said the Clement wouldn't unless he was playing fulltime.  

Mac said that Balentein would likely get alot more at-bats in a bench role then clement would because of Wilkerson's history.  He also said that some of the top people in the organization strongly believe that Balentein has better bat potential then Adam Jones....

He has an audio clip with Mac on his blog.

with what we currently have invited to camp, under contract, and available minor leaguers what would be the best way to construct the bench options?

The way I see it right now the M's are counting on:
Burke (RH)
Willy (RH)
Cairo (RH)
and ?????

To me that seems like a lot of fluff on the bench, good versatility, but nothing I'd want to have in the starting lineup should a regular have to miss a couple games due to injury.... its also a predominantly right handed hitting bench, which we all know doesn't favor Safeco in the least.

So, with what we have in the organization, and coming to camp, here's what I would do to optimize the bench.

First, Willy is fine, he can sub-defensively at a myriad of positions plus he gives you that late inning baserunner that can steal a base...

Second, and I know this one won't be popular, but I'd replace Burke as the backup catcher, with Clement.  Clement's defensive may not be up to snub, but he's not going to be the primary catcher anyways give him a couple starts a week, and he can also be used as your primary pinch hitter.  He can hit for power and can draw walks, so to me he's the best option, even if he may need more seasoning.

Third option would be Wlad.  He can be used to give some of the outfielders a rest, and also provides power off the bench.  He may not be gold glove material, but he's played all 3 outfield positions, so he can be used to rest all 3 of the outfielders ... with Willy you've got the late inning defensive replacement in close and late games.

Last spot goes to Morse... His offense while providing very little homerun pop has been improving the last couple years, he can in an emergency fill in at Short, Third, First, and some outfield.

I know the primary objection will be that guys like Clement and Wlad aren't ready, and they need development, but I think this is the optimal bench to support the team as it stands now.

How would you construct it with the parts we currently have available?

some news has come out of Peoria that Baker is reporting on his blog...

first and foremost your opening day starter has been names, and Bedard gets the nod.  He's got some links up to, that I'm assuming are video or audio links in talking to Felix about it, who reportedly had a positive outlook.

Morrow is going to be using 3 pitches frequently this year, fastball, slider, and split finger... Mac Says that will make him a much more effective late inning reliever.

and the M's have signed Greg Norton to a minor league deal with an invite to ST.

Since the other day when the Felix Boston game was on I've been thinking about 1st base defense and all the comments directed at Sexson and his defense.

It got me to wondering if in the defensive metrics of a first baseman they take into considering the fielding on throws.  Now I know Sexson blows at range, based upon the current defensive metrics, I don't dispute that, but when the M's got Olerud as a free agent there was alot of talk about how he made the rest of the infield defense better with his ability to pick errant throws out of the dirt as well as being able to make tag plays on off the mark throws.

Have any of the current defensive metrics taken any of that ability into account?  How much of weighted factor would that be against the standard defensive metrics for typical position players?

I'm not trying to make Sexson into a good defensive player with this.. I'm just trying to find out if there has been any type of stat that has looked into it.  Since its such a different postion defensively with different responsibilities much like a catcher?

Its only 26 days away from the first FSN televised game (March 3rd Cactus League), so not only are we close to pitchers and catchers reporting ... about a week away, but also it won't be long till we actually get to see some Mariner baseball on tv again.

Oh yeah, in regards to the deal that is moving along so slowly, for you Adam Jones fans out there, you'll be able to see him 7 times in the first month of the season since the M's play the O's on two different occasions to start the year, so while me may be wearing the "wrong" uniform, you'll still get to watch him play quite a bit.

And finally... the Mariners start to the season should bode well for getting off to a good start, series against Tex, Balt, Tampa, before the first meeting with LAAAAAAAAAAA.  The first month actually looks good for the M's schedule wise (strength of schedule) considering the only playoff calibur teams they play are LAA and Cle at the end of the month.  

anyone that might be interested, or have access... FSN is replaying that game right now, at least I'm getting the game right now on FSN... heading to the bottom of the first.

Might be a nice distraction from all the other Mariner news that keeps going on and on around here.

Just in case any of you are interested.